Metric system or Base-12 ?

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The metric system (base-10) is easier to remember than older systems. Every unit is uniformly 10 times more than the next smaller one. Or 10, 100, 1000 times, if we consider only important ones. Also, by using prefixes like "kilo-" there are less words to remember. We use it in "kilogram", "kilometer". For length, we just remember "meter" and apply the prefixes. We don't have to remember: "inch", "foot", "yard", "furlong", etc.

However, the older systems came about for a reason and do not pooh-pooh our ancestors for using Base-12 systems. They makes it easy to get "a quarter", "a third", or "half". If things were sold by "the tens", the green grocer could give you "a half", but couldn't give you "a third" or "a quarter" without cutting up some fruit and vegetables (or eggs).

I was reminded of this recently, while watching a tutorial on web page layouts. The designer mentioned that he usually set up a grid of 12 columns. That way, he could split the page into halves, quarters and thirds very easily, using the same underlying 12 columns.

Don't get me wrong: I do support metric systems, but appreciate the rationale of base-12 systems. And, having two systems is worse than having one bad one. Remember the Mars spacecraft that crashed because two modules were using different systems and did not "know" it.

Now, let's make the calendar metric and give people born on Feb 29th an annual birthday please! Having the calendar linked to the sun still makes sense, but we can ignore the cycles of the moon.

There are some organizations that still campaign for older systems. If you're curious check out the "British Weights & Measures Association".

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